Chapter Text
The colourful troll stood before him and Trollex stuttered as he tried to introduce himself. The incident that just happened still had him on his toes, before he could even say his name the Pop troll was examining him, asking Trollex questions and moving onto the next one before he could even give him a straight answer. “You’re the techno ones, lemme guess Barb got to your village too?” Trollex had let him look him over once more before moving himself away from Branch. Letting out a small ‘yes’ as flashbacks invaded his mind once again. Looking down at the ground, Branch noticed the expression on the techno trolls face and knew the feeling. “She got to mine too.” Trollex looked up at him.
“She took everyone from you too? Did you manage to save your string?” He replied,
Branch shook his head. “The only thing that matters to me is rescuing everyone, Poppy would probably be disappointed in me for not saving the string first. What about you?” He questioned and Trollex wondered if he should trust this Pop Troll about his string, after all, he did save him from being torn to pieces by a vicious creature and Branch didn't need an answer to that when he noticed the string tied around Trollex’s wrist. “You shouldn't have that exposed, I know you don't trust me and all but I have a safe spot to put it.” He gestures to his hair and Trollex looked at him like he was mental. There was no way on earth he was just gonna hand his string over to a stranger.
“I’m not just going to hand over my string to you, I think it’s safer with me.” Branch snorted and Trollex was confused, why was he laughing? “Oh yeah sure, you barely tried defending yourself against that beast back there,” He stopped and grew serious. “How will you expect to protect it if you can’t even protect yourself?” The Pop Troll had a point, Trollex doesn’t know how to protect himself let alone his people and that's the one thing he will hate to think about for the rest of the journey and maybe forever.
A thought came to his mind, maybe this Pop Troll will teach him how to defend himself and his kingdom? “Then how about you teach me?” He blurted out and even Branch was taken aback. Sure he taught himself how to defend himself but teaching someone else? Now that's going to be a challenge for the both of them.“You want me to teach you? Okay, First off I’ve never taught anyone my skills before so this is going to be a challenge, second. Can we at least give each other our names before we get started? Not knowing it makes it really awkward.”
Trollex agreed, laughing it off with Branch and finally introduced himself, as so did Branch towards him. The two got along well and Branch was surprised by this and It wasn’t often he’d get along with anyone besides Poppy and her friends. The two started their rescue mission, going in the same direction Barb had and while they travelled through the forests and different landscapes Branch had to stop Trollex from wandering off and of course, he didn’t blame him. The mertroll was in awe and was just curious about his surroundings.
“So, King Trollex. Why don’t you tell me about yourself and your people?” Branch asked and Trollex implied him to just call him by his name. “Just Trollex is fine.” And went on to tell Branch about his kingdom and its history. Of course, he didn't know much about it, only by what his parents had told him. He had explained what their music and culture life is like and why they had their home secured in the deepest part of the ocean, it was for safety reasons. But now that's not the case since Barb had found it and they would need to find another safer location soon after all this is over.
“That's why we live deep undersea, to protect ourselves from enemies like Queen Barb of the Rock Trolls.” Trollex implied and even though there were other dangers out there that they were protecting themselves from, there were still chances that the techno trolls did not trust the other tribes. Now that Trollex met Branch, maybe all tribes aren't as bad as his parents said they were. Branch cleared his throat and pulled out a map of the Troll forest that he had taken from the book King Peppy showed them. “Well that doesn't help the situation if your territory is on the map, that's probably how Barb found you in the first place.”
Trollex looked over at the map Branch was holding. Yep, definitely outdated. Either Barb has an updated version or she just got lucky when she found the techno trolls reef. “This is outdated, the location where the techno trolls are is incorrect, Barb must’ve gotten lucky when she found us.”
Branch looked over the map again, groaned in frustration and scumbled the piece of paper and threw it over his shoulder, not a care in a world. “Well, guess we’re moving forward, let’s see what lays ahead of us.” Branch started heading forward and Trollex quickly pick up the map. Exclaiming while uncrumbling the map in his hands. “Whoa hey! The map may be old but the directions of the other troll tribes are still correct! At least I hope it is.”
Branch rolled his eyes and kept walking ahead and Trollex realised how far he was and quickly caught up to the Pop Troll. “We’re wasting time.” He takes the map from Trollex. “If we hurry we can maybe make it to Symphonyville in time before Barb does, that’s if the directions to the other tribes are correct.”